Lunar Ark Proposed in Event of ELE

It was with great interest that I read an article over at National Geographic about the proposal to build a lunar ark (on the moon), in the event of an ELE (Extinction Level Event). Ever since I saw the movie Deep Impact, I have wondered about how we can protect our world from these events that we really have little control over. (as an aside, there are some shooting/location flaws with Deep Impact, but it still is a great movie!)

In Deep Impact, they build an ark deep under the mountains and have a national lottery to decide who gets to go there. Since there are only 1 million spots in the U.S.A.'s ark and for the sake of getting the best, they choose scientists, artists, etc and then they decide anyone over 45 is automatically disqualified...it was very emotional, but I digress.

I think we should always be working on planning how to save what we have here and the Lunar Ark sounds like a great idea! I also hope the powers that be are working on ways to move killer meteors away from our planet and that we see it coming in time to actually do something about it.

What disturbs me is how little progress we are making in our endeavors to get into space. I applaud private companies that are now taking strides to do this themselves. I know they are motivated by money, but often great strides forward appear out of our Capitalist Society. We have to be willing to take risks in order to move forward and there are plenty of people willing to take the risks. We have become afraid in many ways in our country. We place human lives at a great value (and don't get me wrong, that is a good thing), but we can't let our fear tame us or worse diminish us.

America is great because our founders risked everything and in the years that followed, these risk takers continued to lead the way in our country. I was horrified and saddened by first the Challenger explosion (I was in college and remember clearly the day I saw this event live on tv) and then by the Columbia Explosion. I believe that the last thing any of those astronauts would want is for exploration into Space to stop! That makes their sacrifices pointless. The space program has a history of disasters and deaths to mix in with its successes and new knowledge we have obtained. We need to move forward.

The Lunar Ark is a great idea, but we need to be working on our transportation into space, our exploration of space. In recent years, astronomers believe they have found more and more evidence of other planets that may resemble our own. We need to find them, and particularly if they are uninhabited, make plans to move ourselves there if need be. Like in the movie Mission to Mars, we need to be prepared to abandon ship if the need arises. So it is not just a place to go that we need to be working on, but a way to get there.

I grew up on science fiction. My first favorite television show was Star Trek. I have seen ideas introduced on that show in the 60's that have come to fruition. Dreamers dream the dreams of our future, it is up to the scientists, inventors and entrepreneurs to turn those dreams into reality.

So let's stop letting our fear get in the way of our exploration and of a better tomorrow!